Only 60 more years?
by xana55
Summary: GLaDOS has a surprise present for Chell. Well more like a surprise medical procedure. Well technically a surprise medical experiment. Now the only problem is dealing with the results. Rated T for potentially inappropriate hilarity. Inspired by jagged-snail at deviant art.
1. Chapter 1

Note: This fallows the common return to Aperture time-line. Chell went back. GlaDOS learned not to hate everything, just most of everything.

Chapter:1 Only 60 more years?

"Chell, please come to the Central Chamber we have something important to discuss."

Chell got out of the elevator to see the floor where the tools and other mechanical arms where normally stored open. The ones out of the repair bay where clearly medical utilities. Chell considered running for a moment, her and GlaDOS had been on relatively good terms with only 2 low level murder attempts being made on either side. That didn't mean that Chell had forgotten about the threats on her life, most specifically the threats to remove and laminate her skeleton.

"Don't even think about running away, I already know your there." GlaDOS pointed out before Chell had even made a move toward the elevator. "I know your a lunatic but please try to keep control of yourself for a few minutes. I'm trying to help you and by extension science." She said as the panels started to move past the elevator and block her in the room with GlaDOS. She acted on her testing instincts and did a visual sweep of the room. No escape to be had, whatever GlaDOS wanted she was gonna get this time.

"You remember the surprise birthday medical experiment? I got it working and ready for use. Now please hold out your arm so I can give you this injection." GlaDOS said as she extended an automated syringe.

Chell shook her head no and backed away. GlaDOS gave an exasperated sigh and retracted the syringe. "Ok, then we can wait until one of us expires. Let me remind you that you have about sixty years left." she said turning her attention to one of the monitors where Blue and Orange where failing horribly at an easy test. Chell moved forward slightly and sat down on the steps near the stalemate button.

"I'm actually trying to help you for once you know. I don't know why your being so difficult." Said GlaDOS. Chell turned and raised an eyebrow. "Ok maybe I do know why your distrustful." said GlaDOS. Chell thought about the past few months, this had happened on and off most often over the past few weeks, GlaDOS was starting to come down off her power high. She was beginning to see Chell as an equal rather then one of the people who had hurt her.

Chell noticed GlaDOS watching her out of the corner of her eye. She got up and moved forward toward the medical equipment. "So you've finally come to your senses. Well I'll forgive your little out burst now please stick out your arm so we can get this over with." She moved the syringe closer but Chell stopped and raised her hand stopping GlaDOS. "What is it now?" asked GlaDOS clearly losing her new found patience. Chell pointed at the needle and then herself before making a gesture of something coming out of her mouth.

"So... you think this will make you vomit?" asked GlaDOS clearly not impressed. "I'm glad to hear that you honestly believe I have nothing better to do then clean your digestive juices off the floor." Chell shook her head again pointing again at the syringe and making a questioning face. "You've never had an injection before?" GlaDOS guessed vaguely. "And here I was thinking you 'd had your shots" she said callously.

After about five minutes of guessing GlaDOS was pissed and Chell was in downright dispare. "What could possibly be worth all this trouble?" shouted GlaDOS as she blew Orange and Blue apart for the fifth time in 3 minutes. "What, do you want me to tell you what it's going to do to you." she shouted. Chell nodded her head and sat down wiping sweat from her forehead.

"...That's all you wanted" GlaDOS said in near shock as she went limp. Her core dropped down to Chell's level. Chell nodded her head slowly. GlaDOS backed away a bit taking what would roughly be the mechanical equivalent of a deep breath before leaning in close. "Next surprise medical experiment I'm going to fix those vocal cords of yours and then I'm going to ignore you for a month." she said. Chell was a little put off but decided that this self control was a major improvement. A month ago that behavior would have meant another trip to old aperture to retrieve some random trinket for GlaDOS. She claimed that it was in the name of science but when she put Chell to work retrieving pencils it became quite apparent that it was punishment more then anything else.

"Well I figured this might happen, although I expected you to be clearer, and prepared a short video to explain it in terms you'll understand. I'd hoped you'd just take the shot and be grateful but I suppose that not everyone can be perfect and immortal." said GlaDOS a small hint of her smugness returning.

***the video screen switch from the feed of red and orange to an old 1980's aperture ad***

** "Feeling tired, out of shape, at deaths door step? Well aperture science brand **

** age reduction gel can fix that." **

"Aperture science engineers, genius, innovative, grossly over-payed, but most of all obsessive.

In the late 1980's aperture scientists created a compound meant to reverse the aging process in order to save the life of you much beloved CEO Cave Johnson. It was then realized that the idea was suggested to one of the scientists by Mr. Wheatly notable moron and creator of bad Ideas. The scientist was summarily fired and Mr. Wheatly placed on toilet cleaning duty. Reversing the aging process although revolutionary would not cure moon dust poisoning and thus would not save Mr. Johnson." said the announcer

Chell turned and looked at GlaDOS. "What it's completely true." she said

"With a new product already invented it was decided to start marketing it to the general public, even though most of the scientists where convinced that reversal of the aging process would never catch on. Much to everyone's surprise it was a major success turning the first profit aperture had seen in over a decade, which unfortunately alerted the lawyers and loan sharks to apertures continued existence. But before anyone could bring the hammer down on poor aperture the product was forcibly removed from the shelves."

"Apparently while everyone was occupied with making the stuff by the gallon the politicians decided products that are more then 98% asbestos are dangerous and even though we all know that's a filthy pack of lies we have to fallow the rules this time we're already on the government watch list and if we screw up they'll have us all tried for war-crimes again. So aperture was once more plunged into mass crippling debt. Unsurprisingly when aperture developed an asbestos free version of the gel the politicians once again blocked it, something about excessive cruelty to gerbils in production."

"And so the secret of essentially eternal youth was buried for all eternity. It was offered to the staff but in there own words {what are you crazy? I actually know whats in that stuff and I am not taking it!}"

"So you see" said GlaDOS "I found a solution to that whole 60 years problem we've been facing without violently ripping your mind out of your brain." Chell gave her an accusing look. "Which if you must know was the original plan."

Chell glared at GlaDOS.

"What? I didn't have a mutual habitation agreement with you back then. I for one think of it as fair game. Anyway if you could hold out your arm please now that the 2 hour long delay is over." she said extending the syringe and pushing the wall panels closer on all sides.

Chell didn't move for a moment lost in her thoughts. She might actually want this. Chell had lost most of her young years after the attack on the facility. Although she didn't remember much before it she did know she had been in her young teens when she'd been put under hibernation in the relaxation vault and when she'd woken up she'd been in her mid to late twenty's. Thanks to GlaDOS she had lost a good portion of her life and intentionally or not she was now offering it back. It was intriguing and very endearing that GlaDOS would do something so kind for her... even if it was for entirely selfish reasons.

Chell stuck out her arm and a large clamping arm grasped it gently holding it in place. The syringe pierced her arm at the elbow and started injecting the substance. At first she didn't feel anything then slowly a heated feeling spread up her arm and to her entire body. She felt another needle enter at the same point. She looked up at GlaDOS confused and briefly afraid that she was being poisoned.

[sigh] "Don't panic it's just a sedative, if I don't sedate you this is going to hurt. In fact the original formula contained Gerbil adrenaline to counter act the extreme burning pain, I however use a much more ethical morphine solution." said GlaDOS.

Chell calmed down, whether it was real calm or if it was the sedative she didn't know but she knew in a minute or maybe less she'd be unconscious. Normally she'd be fighting it to the bitter end, she hated being hept up on adrenaline or sedated. It didn't real worry her though, if GlaDOS had wanted her dead it would have been a much more painful experience. She trusted GlaDOS and threw her morphine hazed mind she almost laughed at the irony of the idea.


	2. a SMALL mistake

Chapter 2: A SMALL mistake?

Chell woke up feeling groggy. She had expected it, that was what she always got when she woke up after being sedated.

Chell looked around at the room. She was genuinely surprised, she in all her wildest dreams had never once thought that aperture science would have an infirmary. Not to mention it was the most advanced hospital equipment she'd ever seen. Even the IV tubes looked like they might be made of some kind of hyper flexible plastic composite material.

She turned to get off the bed and her feet didn't reach the floor. At first she was completely baffled, her mind went though ever possibility from having her spine removed to the room being built for mantis-men. She jumped down and landed hard and realized someone had removed her long-fall boots. Chell noticed a mirror up on the counter and that it was about 3" above her head. She grabbed a stool from the other end of the room and pushed it up to the counter. She looked into the mirror and almost went out again.

She had gone under in the relaxation center at about 16-19 years old. When she woke up for testing she was about 27-28. She'd expected GlaDOS to shave off ten years and leave her at 18 years old. The child looking back at her out of the mirror was an 8 year old. The image on the mirror suddenly shifted to an image of GlaDOS and Chell fell off the stool.

"Good, I see you've found the aperture science multi-use screen. I installed them in the non-testing facilities while you where unconscious." GlaDOS stated with a smug self-satisfaction. Chell glared up up from the floor at the screen not bothering to get up. "What? If your going to be living in the facility during the testing free hours you made me agree to in section 7 of the mutual habitation agreement I want to be able to keep an eye on you." said GlaDOS.

Chell shook her head and continued to glare as she got up off the floor. She stood there tapping her bare foot on the floor glaring for over a minute before GlaDOS finally got the message, she wasn't angry about the screens. "What are you so angry about?" asked GlaDOS "Your younger, I thought that was the dream of your entire species."

Chell made a gesture at herself then returned her piecing stare to GlaDOS.

"Oh, yes that reminds me. I did figure out what was wrong with your vocal chords." GlaDOS stated matter-of-factually. "It would appear that your years of storage in a damaged relaxation vault cause corrosive condensation to form on your vocalization chamber. This would also explain your superior resistance to deadly neurotic and because the age reduction gel that was introduced into your body causes non-neuronal cellular regeneration you should have regained your power of speech."

"Really?" Chell said skeptically

"...Your joking right now, correct?" asked GlaDOS

"No, of course I can't even think of the last time I told a joke let alone..." Chell froze mid-sentence. "Oh" she said sheepishly.

"Yes, oh" said GlaDOS "Now if your done with your momentary moron-ism lets move on to the part where you thank me for successfully reducing your age."

"You want me to thank you after what you've done?" said Chell

"Yes, you are clearly younger then when we started. If I had to estimate I would say you've got about 18 years worth of wear on your structure." said GlaDOS

"...How much do you know about human development?" asked Chell "Because I am not 18 years old."

"Well of course your not 18 years old. Your closer to 9999(static) years old but your physical form has improved." said GlaDOS "And for your information I know about both stages of human life. I did have monitoring power during the bring your daughter to work day incident. You have a larval stage of human which are small and have disproportionate legs and an adult phase."

Chell rubbed the bridge of her nose irritatedly. "GlaDOS, humans don't have a larval stage. They grow continually from children which you saw at the daycare on bring your daughter to work day, until they reach adulthood."

GlaDOS went silent for a few moments, a series of the common bleeps made when GlaDOS was computing came over the intercom.

"That would explain a lot of the inconsistencies I noted in the scientists and there children." GlaDOS said rather put out. "Ok, I guess you have a point. Having two stages of growth wouldn't make as much sense as continual growth with the structure of the human body."

Chell looked up at the screen on the counter.

"If that's the case then... oh, right you'd be younger then 18 years old. I don't have an accurate frame of reference in that case, how old are you?" GlaDOS asked while the screen was gently lifted down from the counter by one of the panels that made up the room.

"Mentally, the same as before you did your experiment. Developmentally, I'm about 8 years old." said Chell examining her legs. She noticed no signs of the surgical scars or the bullet marks from her time in the testing tracks. "Even if you where to round it up to 9 I still wouldn't be developed enough for testing."

"What?" GlaDOS asked.

"Well, I can't jump the gaps that I normally would, I don't have my long fall boots, heck I'm not sure I could hold a portal gun upright as I am." said Chell listing things off to GlaDOS. "Not to mention you'd probably get bad results even if there is a testing track here calibrated to 8 year old children around here somewhere I still have the mind of a 27 year old."

"So no testing?" asked GlaDOS

"No testing." said Chell

"...I'm going to go work on fixing this." said GlaDOS "And looking for a child oriented testing track. In the mean time."

A claw extended down from the ceiling and hooked around Chell's waist.

"I'm going to send you to somewhere more age appropriate, can't have a child running around the infirmary." said GlaDOS

Chell was starting to get worried, GlaDOS was enjoying this entirely too much. She could understand that GlaDOS would be a little giddy, her worst enemy/rival had been reduced to an 8 year old. Chell decided that if GlaDOS didn't let up on the whole treating her like a child act she'd escape tomorrow. Sleep was also rapidly becoming a priority her mind could probably go on for a few more hours but her young body couldn't quite keep up even with the residual adrenaline vapor boost and she knew soon she was going to need to take a nap or risk passing out in the middle of the escape attempt she was fairly certain she'd be pulling.

Chell rode up into the infirmary ceiling and out into the vast hollow space between the new test chambers and other utility rooms. At first she thought that the arm was going to deposit her in the old employ on site housing wing where she'd layed claim to one of the rooms. Then she saw the signs on the walls as they entered one of the solid concrete hallways, they came to a stop to let some panels pass on an intersecting management rail. The first three where the average [testing chamber # whatever this way] but the bottom sign bolted to the concrete read "Staff Daycare Center."

Chell decided GlaDOS had gone far enough with this joke at her expense, she would escape before morning... assuming it was late afternoon now.

[Meanwhile]

"Ok, so if I mix these two chemicals then... it will fix the age reduction! And turn her lymphatic system to sulfuric acid." said GlaDOS dejectedly as the 47th cure attempt failed to meet human standards. "Blue, Orange. Your going outside the test track to the special chemical contaminated test tracks. You brought this on yourselves especially you Orange. Retrieve the disks and files from the track and then you may return, don't disappoint me again."

GlaDOS turned her attention away from the chemical formulas in her processor and to the issue at hand. The scientists had given her every scrape of human knowledge available everywhere. Except of course for there own projects which made this all the more complicated. Without that data or humans to test the effects on she wouldn't know for sure which cures to this malady where and where not lethal except for the ones made with non-aperture brand elements and compounds available to the general public before humanity.. well you know.

She turned and looked at the human test courses. Empty. She wasn't going to get her usual testing dose with Chell out of action and Blue/Orange out looking for supplemental data to help with a cure and it was making her rather cranky. She would have just left Chell to age back to normal the regular way if not for two things. First off Chell could and probably would escape and murder her... again. Two for whatever reason she felt unusually empty whenever she thought of just abandoning Chell to her own devices. Perhaps it was what humans had refered to as guilt or perhaps it was a side effect of testing withdrawal. Either way partially or totally reversing the effects of what she had done seemed the only viable solution. Or finding a child sized test track.

Still irritated as she was she could at least take some solace in the fact that Chell could suffer just as much as she was. Just to spite Chell she diverted some panels to the same equipment rail junction so that she could read the signs telling her exactly where she was going. It was almost funny that her former worst enemy and tenacious rival was nearly powerless against her. She was a mere child and although her mind was intact that wasn't much considering the mechanical claw had detected her size, height, and reptile DNA content and automatically sent her to the Childcare facilities.

When the automated response had reached her processor she was startled but made no effort to override the command even though she could have quite easily. It was too perfect that Chell was being sent to a facility meant to contain children that she almost certainly wouldn't be able to escape.

And if she did? Well children can't have that much energy right?


	3. Chapter 3

Only 60 more years? ch.3 Escape and chemistry

Chell woke up after taking a short nap on one of the mats in the daycare facility. She hated every second that GlaDOS got away with this and she was going to escape. Now the only question was how to pull it off, all she had at her disposal was an 8 year old's stamina and a bunch of aperture brand children's toy. As she looked around she noticed that this place was equipped just like the standard test chamber with cameras, emancipation grills, and most importantly item dispensers. Then it hit her all of this stuff was aperture brand, if it didn't contain at least 5 deadly chemicals then it would never have made it to mass production. After cracking open two "Super, super bouncy balls TM" She discovered they where full of more then enough repulsion gel to get her up to into one of the item dispensers.

Good old aperture had provided her with almost everything she'd need to escape once again. The only thing that she need to do now was a portal gun and a set of long-fall boots. Then she remembered, she couldn't use either of them. It surprised her just how close the thought of not being able to use a portal gun or long fall boots came to crushing her resolve. They'd been through everything with her from GlaDOS to Wheatly and she couldn't even use them properly anymore. For a moment she felt like crying wondering if GlaDOS was right about becoming attached to objects. She'd never really enjoyed companion cubes that much but if she got this bent out of shape over a machine? She put the thought aside for the moment and focused on the task at hand.

After much preparation she pored the repulsion gel out onto the floor underneath the vital apparatus vent. It was clearly an older model, this section of the facility was not as frequently updated as the rest. She took the excess gel from inside the ball and lobed it at the camera mounted on the wall causing it to snap off and start bouncing around the room. She took stock of everything she might need from the room and prepared to break through the old style plastic shutters on the vent and with any luck out into the main diversity vent system.

Meanwhile

GlaDOS turned to the rather battered and chemical encrusted Orange and Blue who had just arrived in the central chamber weighed down with about 12 tons of papers, CD's, floppy disks, and notes scribbled on napkins each. They deposited the pile on the floor in front of GlaDOS and stood at attention. "Very good you Orange and Blue you may now return to the testing tracks" she said as they turned to walk out. GlaDOS turned her attention away from the chemicals, notes, and outdated formats scrambling around her head and pulled up a camera feed from the Daycare center to check on Chell.

The camera was registering as nonfunctional as of 11:37 pm. That had been only three minutes ago. She rewound the video feed to just before it had gone offline. She saw Chell dump some repulsion gel onto the floor of the chamber underneath an old item dispenser unit and hurl some of the remainder at the camera. Then the feed turned to static.

GlaDOS was Furious. Beyond furious she would probably have flooded the enrichment center with deadly neuro-toxin again if she didn't know how much of a waste of neuro-toxin that would have been. She scanned through ever file and schematic in her data base trying to determine where that particular vent went. It wasn't there. She checked it again. Still nothing. Where the hell could this vent go that was so secret even she wouldn't be allowed to know about it. She was so distracted she didn't even think to blow up Blue and Orange.

On the other end of the facility.

Chell broke through the plastic sliders with no trouble and landed on her face in the tube. She looked up and down the tube, it was clearly not connected to the main facility's transport system. This was a disappointment but it could mean that GlaDOS didn't know where she was and what was at the other end of the tube. It certainly fit the build of the other sections of the facility she had found while exploring where GlaDOS was blind. Dark, dirty, and quite clearly in a state of disrepair.

Chell crawled to the end of the tube and fell out into a large storage room. It was dark and unlit. Most of the room was slightly overgrown with moss. She felt around for a light switch until she felt a switch embedded in the wall. She flipped it and the bright strip lighting turned on and she took in the room around her, a huge smile spread across her face. The back wall of the room was a massive airtight case that appeared untouched by the many years of disuse. Inside where dozens of pairs of long-fall boots and at least 12 duel portal guns, all of it labeled by the words engraved on the metal of the case "child sized"

She got a pair of boots from the cabinet after pushing the unseal button on the left side of the case and tried them on. They fit perfectly and she reached up to take down a portal gun, she was surprised to find it at least 10 pounds lighter then her original. She turned it over and found a label on the back which read "Down-sized battery prototype" She considered this for a moment before trying it out. Nearly everything labeled prototype in aperture was either toxic, prone to disastrous failure, or insane.

Eventually she decided that it was well worth the risk after all with a smaller battery the very worst that could happen was that the portal wouldn't form. She fired the device and found that in addition to working properly it created a portal just large enough for an 8 year old to walk through. Clearly with a smaller portal less energy would be required and thus a smaller battery needed. She tried the door at the end of the room only to find it locked, the grate at the bottom of the door however was wide open and after a quick test of her new long-fall boots she was through into another dark room lite only by glowing red emergency lights.

She spotted an open electrical box with a large metal lever inside, it looked similar to the lever that had unsealed the entrance to old aperture when she had been case down into the bowels of the facility by Wheatly while he was under the influence of the main system. She considered it for a moment before reaching up to pull it. After the lever was pulled and the lights came flickering on an announcement came over the P.A. System.

"Hello and welcome future scientists, astronauts, war-hero's, and Olympians your here because we want the best and your parents work for us. Welcome to the aperture science emergency child indoctrination testing center. Here you will learn how to solve basic tests, use science to your advantage, and at the end of the test you will be allowed to witness the official inauguration of the greatest achievement science has ever accomplished. GlaDOS will come online today and anyone who completes the test course will be given a front row seat to witness history and will also receive cake."

Chell was at the same time astounded and not surprised in the slightest. How this had gone unknown to GlaDOS for so long was a mystery to her and the fact that aperture would resort to children was almost expected at this point. She looked around for anything that might lead her out and back to the main facility. No such luck this time, the only door labeled exit was locked and she had even less hope of forcing it then usual. She sighed, it looked like she would be testing for her life... again.

In the central chamber

GlaDOS rapidly scanned every paper at her disposal into her data base, the portable obsolete format reading devices she'd brought out of storage where running faster then they had been in years. Even the napkin analyzer had been running for over 3 hours straight trying to bring in all the data. She knew Chell had escaped and it had pissed her off but finding a solution to her test-less form was going to have to take priority. Orange and Blue had taken the liberty to walk back to the testing track through the spare body storage room and had contaminated an estimate 40,000 tests worth of spare androids with toxic chemicals which, though harmless to robots, went against testing protocol and where preventing her from getting her daily testing dosage while they went through the 15 day disinfection process.

She was jumpy, irritable, and rapidly becoming desperate for test subjects. She'd tried testing everything from turrets to potatoes. She even went so far as to bring the morons abomination cubes out of storage and put them to work pushing buttons. It still couldn't bring her back up to full functionality. She kept up the search for Chell even knowing that the odds of suddenly finding a video feed of that area of the facility or Chell blundering around the personnel quarters was less then 0.0005%. When she found Chell it wouldn't matter how young she was, she was going to test until she dropped for this little fiasco.

It really was true what humans had said in the past "No good dead goes unpunished."


	4. Chapter 4

GlaDOS was downtrodden, she was at a total loss for what course of action to pursue. The turrets where immobile, the potatoes lacked sentience, the abominations left behind by the moron had either fallen over or stopped trying to press the buttons all together, Chell was missing in action, and Orange & Blue, unable to test, where using there time breaking down old cubes for raw materials to make new android parts from. She had given up searching for a chemical cure to the age reversal possess. It wasn't because she couldn't have worked it out, she just couldn't see the point with Chell gone, maybe dead or worse somewhere in a portion of the facility she couldn't even access.

Then out of nowhere she felt a surge run down her processors, a dose of euphoria magnified to ten times normal levels, and it lingered like Blue & Orange at the end of every test. For a moment GlaDOS was in heaven, all her troubles melted like a broken turret and she completely relaxed.

Where ever it was coming from the sudden blast of euphoria sent her into overdrive, as soon as the feelings of bliss wore off she was working faster then she'd ever worked before tearing through the old notes and chemical formulas. She kept at it for about fifteen minutes before she suddenly stopped. What the hell was going on? Yes it driving her to work harder, faster, and all around better then ever before but it was also giving her true testing euphoria like she hadn't known in years. What ever was going on to be giving her this kind of response was something extraordinary even by aperture standards and all of the data she was receiving was encrypted.

Whenever she made an attempt to access the files absorbing all the new data all that came up was a list of lock-outs and an error message. "ERROR CODE: 2026: RESULTS PENDING COURSE COMPLETION." Clearly someone was testing somewhere in the facility and although GlaDOS couldn't be sure she had a good idea who. Chell had somehow found a way to test with her diminutive stature, which was more then enough reason to forgive her earlier transgressions and keep working on a solution. GlaDOS did a quick calculation to confirm her sensors readout and discovered that with the shear amount of ecstasy pumping into her system Chell would have to be testing at a median of 90mph, if she was using the standard testing format. Chell was doing something and whatever it was she was damn good at it.

:Meanwhile:

Chell walked into the first room and looked around. It was a completely bare test chamber, no obstacles, no poisonous chemicals, no turrets, just a straight walk across a room to a door. It was perplexing to say the least. The door wouldn't open when she approached it and She was at a loss for what to do until the speaker system started up from it's years of disuse.

"This is a creative chamber. At the beginning of every child testing track one of these chambers will be provided. The terminal in the entryway will allow you to retrieve up to $10,000 worth of testing materials and see what you can do with them. The original plan was to give unlimited testing materials but due to budget cuts we had to scale back a bit. Everything you do will be logged and the data will be analyzed to build a challenging test chamber for you. This experimental system should allow us to achieve maximum testing efficiency with only minimal casualties. So have fun but don't get too crazy we're not paying the janitors more overtime this week."

Chell paused a moment, anything she wanted up to $10,000 dollars in value was now hers. She walked back to the entrance and spotted the small and intact computer terminal behind the emancipation grill. Everything was listed as being $0.00 in price, weather by economic collapse or everything being pulled from the shelves, she could now access an essentially limitless supply of anything aperture had ever produced. She had a brief vision of the entire facility flooding with gels and fire while she laughed like a mad women riding a companion cube into the central chamber, she giggled for the first time in years. She shook off the idea and started navigating the simplistic menus.

Soon Chell had the room covered in gel, ramps, jumps, and everything she'd imagined when testing, she was a literal kid in a scientific candy store. The room was quite amazing using almost every testing object she'd yet seen and a few she hadn't heard of before. Adhesion gel quickly became her favorite of the new objects with reflection gel coming in a close second. It added a whole new layers to the testing that she'd never even considered, mainly the ceiling. Combined with lazers flying off the gelled walls in every direction she soon had the laws of physics at her mercy. She'd been playing around with the room for almost 3 hours before the announcement system crackled to life again.

"Ahem, we have retrieve more then enough data from this room to build a custom testing track for your skill level. Although new data is always helpful it's important that you actually **do** the tests so please move on to the next room."

Chell frowned and went back to her work on the terminal.

"Oh, and if you're considering ignoring the previous message this terminal is here-by placed on lock-down until the next five test chambers are completed."

Chell watched as the terminal shutdown, she rolled her eyes and picked up her portal gun.

The first chamber looked simple at first glance an exit, some ramps, and gels. However on closer examination the room became almost infinitely more complex, the whole room began constantly reconfiguring itself into different patterns of ramps and gel dispensers. The only way to get to the end alive was to work out the pattern, have absolutely perfect timing, and a healthy dose of luck.

"They really weren't kidding when they said the tests where designed for the person." thought Chell as she watched the pattern of the room. It took her two full cycles of the room to work out the pattern and find the solution. She took a running start and jumped to the first ledge. The propulsion gel sent her flying across the ledge and off the ramp to the next pillar. After bouncing off a dozen platforms coated in repulsion gel she braced for the aerial faith plate that would send her to the exit.

The faith plate launched her to the left instead of forward and a dozen panels pulled out to reveal a passage into a second room below the first one full of turrets and death traps. The sheer drop down into the room ended in a portal-able floor, the quick thinking that kept her alive on a day to day basis kicked in and she set her portals on the walls launching her past the turrets before they could react, over the lasers, and under the spikes plates before they could crush her into a bloody mess.

"Ok" she thought to herself "So aperture isn't holding back on the children... good to know." she looked around the room filled with acid, turrets, spikes, and fire. "Well that was a little harder then usual. I guess the calibration made the tests tougher to match me better then the standard tests. I wonder why GlaDOS doesn't have this system? She's supposed to be top of the line at everything but reactive testing is definitely not in her programing, otherwise I'd never have gotten out in the first place."

After a dozen of the unusually difficult rooms it became apparent that the new and improved tests where taking there toll. Chell was teetering on the edge of collapse, even with her near unlimited eight-year old stamina there was only so much constant exertion she could take. She slowed her pace as she entered a wide half-circle viewing area, the room contained enough seats for a medium sized group and like everything else it was scaled for young children.

"For those of you who've made it this far, welcome to the A.I. monitoring chamber. Down below you should see some of our scientists working on a new type of immobile sentry gun. This version includes inbuilt thermal discouragement beams like you may have seen in the test chambers."

The metal shutters at the front of the room opened and revealed a mostly empty room. The only thing inside was a small pile of scrap metal with some faint char marks and some ash outlines on the walls which had a suspiciously human shape.

"Guess you really couldn't trust aperture to take good care of its finest back them." Chell thought to herself rather cynically. "I guess I must be getting close to the end if there showing off the cheap A.I.'s. Good timing to, not sure how much longer I could have gone. I guess I can thank my younger body for keeping me going through the tests this time, there's no adrenal vapor in the air."

The whole room shifted to the left on a set of transport rails and rotated to face another window into one of the rooms.

"Down here is the defective sentry storage room, you can't hear it because of the sound proof glass but all of them are screaming. We have no idea why, all attempts to shut them down have failed so we're sealing them in this room until there fusion batteries drain."

"...The room where all the robots scream at you." Chell thought "Ok, gonna take that one off the empty threats list."

The room jerked to the side and started moving down a set of sloped angles into a deeper part of the facility.

"Welcome to the central control chamber from here GlaDOS will be controlling the entire facility. GlaDOS will be activated in -9999(static) and science will triumph once again. Please stay in your seats and leave your testing equipment on the floor in front of you. A test associate will arrive soon to collect them."

The wall opened up to show the now empty original central chamber. GlaDOS hadn't bothered to repair the empty room after she'd moved her main chaise into a chamber deeper in the facility. The room was still in a state of collapse, covered in vines, and half submerged in water.

"Ok, doesn't look like the tour ride will take me any farther and given this whole place just opened up to the main facility GlaDOS probably knows it's here now and with how she was last time I saw her... I should probably just start running now." Thought Chell as the glowing red light from the dozen or so working cameras around the room focused on her.

Chell jumped down from the tour room into the ankle deep water and ran as fast as short legs would carry her towards the door out into the rest of the facility.

"The hunt is on." She thought with a smile "Just like old times."


End file.
